Busy professionals need to be at the top of their game. Efficiency and effectiveness can be the difference between making that deadline and losing business to someone else. When nutrition is at optimum levels, the body can repair itself, better handle stress, provide more energy, and keep that EDGE needed to compete and win all while staving off colds and flu. When our body isn’t at its best, then it becomes stressed and more difficult to focus, remain productive, and keep on pushing through.

Many of our Olympic athletes feel this stress as well. For this reason, many choose the Shaklee brand of supplements. These athletes must have optimum nutrition and the guarantee that what they are consuming is safe and NEVER tainted. Thus they turn to us. In turn, 121 medals have been earned by Shaklee Pure Performance Athletes. A foundation based on purity and research backed products to support the busiest of professionals, as they attain their dreams is what this is all about.

The Foundational level is YOUR Choice

A sound solid foundation supports a healthy lifestyle. Just as a strong foundation for a building can withstand hurricanes, blizzards and other storms to make it through to the other side, our daily nutritional choices do the same. When we provide our bodies with complete, sound nutrition, our bodies can begin to heal themselves and build immune systems to avoid the storms of poor health. We have many levels available depending on you personal choices and budget.

Why have we chosen to partner with this particular brand of supplements? The research that backs their products.

Do supplements really work? (That depends on how they are made, what they are made up of, and what they are NOT made with.)

So, when our body has the nutrients it needs to replace dying cells, to repair damaged cells and other issues, it is better able to handle stress and fight off sickness and disease. This, in turn, leads to increased energy levels, improved productivity and better sustainability to remain at the top of our game and provide the service and goods required to compete and win in the business world.

Good, Wednesday, morning! Today we focus on another place we frequently have our hands and may not think to disinfect. Though we don’t need to be OCD about it, it helps to wipe it down once in a while.

We keep being told we should eat more fresh produce to improve our health. More nutrient dense, colorful, tasty fresh produce. We also hear, regularly about all the chemicals that are used on the fruits and veggies that we love. I have a 2 cent option to clean all that produce as you bring it home from the market.

This is a really important step! Even organic produce can be sprayed with chemicals/pesticides, so it is important to ALWAYS wash before you eat!

This is another place where my Basic H2, again, saves me money and keeps my family safe. Years ago I read that you should soak your produce for 6 minutes for optimum cleansing, so that is what I do today. (Probably need to research that more)

I’ve been using this product for over 8 years. I use it on my produce, pets, counters, floors, cars, grill, laundry (pre-treat), as insect repellent, as sting relief from bees and wasps, window cleaner, degreaser, and many more things.

Yesterday, I walked into Costco in saw a pallet with a bunch of $20 running shoes. I was so excited at this great deal and they looked like all my other running shoes. I have with 1,000’s of miles on those shoes and I needed a pair for daily work. I happily threw them in my cart with all of my other bulk supplies, checked out and headed home.

I took them out of the box at home and they were so light, I thought wow that’s awesome. And then I put them on.

My $20 tennis… I got what I paid 4. I got a pair that on the outside looked just the same as the others I own at home, however when I put them on… I again was forced to realize the differences between a $20 pair of shoes and my much more than $20 shoes.

My other running shoes have exceptional arch support that you can feel when you take a step, they support my feet and do what they’re supposed to do. These new shoes are flat inside with no support. 😦

I’ve had other bargains that I’ve tried in the past.

I tried a different brand of laundry detergent once. I thought a cheaper box of soap could save me some money. In reality this new laundry detergent caused my clothes to become dingy, even when I used more detergent it still did not get the results I wanted. (AND my husband complained and insisted I go back to Shaklee Laundry) I went back to my already economical choice, my clothes look amazing and I save money by spending “more” on quality product because I use significantly less. (My box of detergent costs a bit more than others, but lasts 2-3 times longer.)

The same thing goes for my daily supplements, I can buy cheaper vitamins at the store, however recent articles show us that these cheaper vitamins may not contain the ingredients promised. They also may contain other ingredients I don’t want.

What’s more, the supplements I take on a daily basis have provided me with the results I wanted. For over 7 years I have felt better, I have had more energy, and I have NOT had to take 6 daily pharmaceuticals. I don’t have co-pays at doctors offices and I don’t have co-pays on those 6 pharmaceuticals every month – a HUGE savings. It would not serve me to go back to bargain vitamins that didn’t provide me with the nutrition that I need to stay healthy.

I don’t do cheap options very much anymore, and when I do they almost always prove that quality and value are more important!

I may “think” I am saving money because what I am buying looks like the other vitamin/shoes/detergent/toilet paper (that’s another story) yet it doesn’t contain what it is suppose to, SO I’ve wasted my money I will now head to the shoe store and get myself a good pair of walking shoes.

(You know its bad when your bulk purchase of toilet paper is never ending and you consider stealing tp from commercial institutions because it looks softer and more useful!)

I’ve recently been asked by a friend about the new Lysine produce being advertised on television with a 70% weight loss average due to fat loss. Here is the information I have on a product that in test studies lost 99% of their weight from fat loss.

Being overweight or obese is the number one health issue of our day. Excess weight is associated with many diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, coronary heart disease, stroke, sleep apnea, and osteoarthritis. Excess weight increases suffering, decreases quality of living, reduces life expectancy, and places a large burden on already burdened health care resources.1

Reversing the obesity epidemic will no doubt require advances on many fronts, including public health policy, consumer and physician education, and community engagement in supporting initiatives to help people become more active. There are literally hundreds of weight-loss programs, most of which do indeed lead to weight loss—but no attention is paid to what constitutes healthy and sustainable weight loss. Loss of water weight or muscle mass (as occurs in all programs) initially looks good on the scale, but fails in the long term to achieve the goal of permanent weight loss.

Since lean muscle mass constitutes the majority of metabolism2, loss of muscle mass is unsustainable in the long-term as metabolism will plummet along with weight loss, which leads to regaining of weight unless permanent changes in diet and lifestyle have occurred. Maintenance of lean muscle mass, therefore, is a key element of a successful weight-loss program.3

PROTEIN MAINTAINS MUSCLE MASS

Since the time of the Roman Empire, protein has been known to help build muscles. When amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) were discovered, it was clear that only certain types of amino acids led to muscle building. The branched-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) were found to have the most effect on maintaining muscle mass, and eventually leucine emerged as the amino acid that has unique effects on protein synthesis.4

Leucine has been shown to have the following effects helpful for weight loss:

Leucine inhibits the breakdown of other proteins.5

Leucine increases metabolism (thermogenic effect).6

During a low-calorie diet, consumption of leucine helps maintain lean muscle mass so that weight loss can preferentially come from fat stores.7

Leucine stimulates a rise in plasma leptin and helps people feel full.8

Several long-term studies in obese participants who consumed a high-soy protein/low-fat diet suggested improved body composition by losing fat and preserving muscle mass.9 Leucine supplementation combined with exercise appears to be one of the most effective way for maintaining lean muscle mass for weight loss.10

CONCLUSION

Excess weight continues to be a challenging public health problem. It is clear that increased protein content of meals during a weight-loss program not only increases satiety and modulates cravings, but also is the main metabolic messenger for the synthesis and maintenance of lean muscle mass.

The majority of leucine-related literature confirms the significance of leucine as a dietary modulator of muscle maintenance that is useful for weight loss and maintenance. The leucine content of a meal may be the critical factor for determining the quantity and quality of proteins necessary at a meal for stimulation of muscle protein synthesis and/or decreased muscle breakdown, and the maintenance of lean body mass and metabolism.

When you are the leader in the natural food supplement industry, people sometimes test your

products without you even knowing about it.

That was exactly what happen with a recent study comparing the effects of Shaklee’s Performance and Gatorade on the risk of kidney stone formation.

This was the ultimate independent study.

Shaklee didn’t initiate it. They didn’t support it. And, in fact, they didn’t even know about it until it

was published a couple of weeks after it was published (J.W. Goodman et al, Urol. Res., 37: 41-46, 2009).

Before I get into the results of the study, perhaps I should start with an explanation of why you

would even want to do that kind of study.

Let’s start with the problem – kidney stones. They are extremely painful, and they can damage the kidney – particularly if they form over and over again.

To a urologist the solution is simple – just drink two liters of water a day.

The problem is that you have to really, really, really like water to drink two liters a day, and most

people just aren’t that into water.

In fact, previous studies had shown that even when patients had a previous kidney stone and were told by their urologist to drink two liters of water a day, the beverage result was an increase of only 0.3 liters a day of water.

So this group of urologists asked what people were drinking instead of water.

The latest trends show that soft drink consumption is decreasing and consumption of sports drinks and energy drinks is increasing. And, there was absolutely no information on whether sports drinks increased or decreased the risk of kidney stone formation.

So they decided to look at two well-known sports drinks, Shaklee’s Performance and Gatorade, to see whether they would increase or decrease the risk of kidney stone formation compared to the consumption of an equivalent amount of water.

They looked at the effect of each sports drink on the amount of citrate in the urine and by how much they increased the pH of the urine because each of these decreases the risk of kidney stone formation.

They also looked at the effect of each sports drink on the amount of sodium and calcium in the urine because each of those increases the risk of kidney stone formation. Performance significantly increased the amount of citrate and the pH of the urine, while Gatorade had no effect on either of them.

Neither Performance or Gatorade had an significant effect on sodium or calcium levels in the urine. Thus, they concluded that Shaklee’s Performance was superior to either Gatorade or water alone at decreasing the risk of kidney stone formation.

Now you might be tempted to say that this study was of more interest to urologists than the general public, but my guess is that if you have ever suffered through a kidney stone this study is of great interest to you.

But to me the more important conclusion is that, once again, independent clinical studies show the superiority of Shaklee products.

About The Author : Dr. Chaney has a BS in Chemistry from Duke University and a PhD in Biochemistry from UCLA. He currently holds the rank of Professor at a major university where runs an active cancer research program and has published over 100 scientific articles and reviews in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

*For more information on health and wellness as well as our full line of Sports Nutrition products including Performance, contact me at Tess@HealthyGreaseMonkey.com